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Ow. My mouse hand is busted.
Had a great time at the LARP weekend, and will now compound my injuries by typing ridiculous quantities of stuff with my busted hand. (In case anyone's worried, it's just bruised and skinned in places. Fell over onto concrete.)
On The Way
We had reasonable quantities of fun, in the sarcastic sense of the word, actually getting to the place. Most of the journey up was quite uneventful, but when we got to the hotel my parents were staying at (having decided that the whole thing was a wonderful excuse for a holiday in the Peak District) it smelt of boiled cabbage despite not having a restaurant, and the room next to theirs was being decorated, so their room smelt of paint. Undaunted by this (and by me teasing them about it mercilessly, as they'd been teasing me about staying at a scout camp and I was beginning to think I had the better deal in accomodation), they went off to find somewhere to eat that night and after they'd reassured the hotel staff that no, I was not staying, I had a nice shower (because I suspected that the advertised showers at the place may not be nice at all). Then I read for a bit and went to sleep, because my period had been inconsiderate enough to start the day before and hence I was shattered already and slightly ill.
We set off in plenty of time to find Marple train station, which was just as well, because despite asking directions and finding a station called Rose Hill numerous times, we only found Marple station by exhaustive trial and error of every street in Marple, which isn't a small town by any means. Thankfully![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
phamster's train was late, although not as late as we were. Then we had even more fun (sarcastic again) finding the actual campsite, which culminated in attempting to drive down a bridleway. Some rather ominous scraping and crunching noises later, not to mention some impressive wheel spin and rubber-burning, and we did manage to extract the car backwards from the downhill, rutted path, but only just. My mother was convinced we'd busted the car, and as phamster had been giving directions I teased him about busting our car all the way there (my father took over the routefinding and found the actual road route into the campsite).
Arrival
We had a brief moment of panic when we arrived becausephamster had never been to this particular site before, but a quick phonecall sorted out where we were meant to be. Insisted on lugging all my own stuff around, was introduced to some people, was given The Condensed Guide To The Campsite by a guy called Paul (who has long hair), went and claimed a bed (bottom bunk, nearest the room door, nearest room to the stairs). The beds were orange (orange sheets and pillowcases, anyway) and actually rather nice, although I did replace the pillow with the one I'd brought from home. phamster handed me an introduction booklet which had all the classes and races in it and I had a look through.
Swordplay lessons
Heading down to the kitchen, I was introduced to some more people who I swiftly forgot the names of, and started to discuss what character I wanted to play. They warned me against being a Wood Elf unless I wanted to be chased after by some of the men. On claiming I wanted to be a warrior, I was asked if I minded hitting people with things and probably being hit back; they threatened to go beat me up when I said I didn't mind at all, but instead I got an impromptu swordplay lesson. And my first lesson was conducted with *real metal swords* - I think they were slightly blunted, but still. They make very cool noises when you parry with them. Once I'd learnt something of how to handle one of them, we started on the pretend swords that were what we actually used to hit people with, which weren't heavy so I could manage to use them one-handed, which was a lot easier.
Instructions + The Armoury
We were just about finishing up the basic swordplay lesson when I got stolen by the main organiser person (Chris), who ran through most of the stuff I'd read in the intro booklet, and generally made sure I knew what was going on and who I could ask questions of. After informing the person in charge of health and safety (Ian) that I probably wasn't going to drop down dead but might have issues with breathing, and being told to come back if I did, some more people had arrived and so some more introductions were given (and more names promptly forgotten). I got sent over to the Armoury for some basic character kit, and ended up with an undershirt of a colour I'd call Peasant Brown-Grey, something that looked like half a dead bear, then chainmail on top of that (boo for chainmail, it's *heavy*) and a maroon velvety top over everything (because it was the only thing my size with long sleeves).phamster had thankfully leant me a belt; belts are useful with chainmail because you can scoop half the mail up to rest on the belt, and so not kill your shoulders quite as much. Ran backwards and forwards finding people who needed to go to the Armoury, and got myself a sword and The Shield of Doom, which was probably over 3/4 of my height and certainly wide enough for me to hide behind completely, and almost certainly cheating. It was amusing, and actually less heavy than the smaller shields.
First Night Adventure: Introductions
Soon enough there was a call for the people on the Friday Night adventure, which I was, so I went to get my stats sorted out. After being informed that I probably shouldn't play a wood elf (because joking aside, they're far too popular) or a cavewoman (because the costume was quite awful), I settled on just a plain human warrior to start off with, which the people doing the stats were most grateful for, as there was very little they needed to write down for her. Asked for a character name, I decided to stick to my original idea of Tessaret. The party consisted of a wood elf priest/healer type, two scouts (one half-elven), one Numenorian Templar, one Tuathen something-or-other, me, and two others whose identities I've already forgotten. I forgot the names of a few more people, although I do remember that I began to notice that there were Too Many Daves. Gem (who was playing the Numenorian) and I commiserated about wearing chainmail, then we all went to look at the map on the wall. I was informed that we were probably on New Avamar (or somewhere else which was meant to be where lots of elves were), and IC'ly about the big island in the middle of the map (which was the first time Dave-who-played-the-Wood-Elf explained the people there, but not the last - he did so about half a dozen times during the weekend). Kasruun asked the Wood Elf how he'd become an adventurer, which led to him being spectacularly emotive about the destruction of the Elven Islands.
The Dave that was playing Kasruun, the half-elven scout, decided to talk to Tessaret 'in the tavern'. Started to flesh out my character history; Tessaret is a farm-girl trying to escape from her parents' insistance that she should be married off, preferably to someone rich and significantly older than her. Kasruun 'gave' her some better equipment (which I never actually verified or did anything about; purportedly he gave her masterwork sword and shield, which he'd acquired during an incident when him and a party of others were mistaken for someone else's troops and given lots of great eq, including a magic sword for himself) and told other people off for not talking. There was some confusion about who was and was not in character (as there weren't any refs around yet) and there was some debate over whether the other scout, who was entirely covered in black velvet, was or was not a necromancer. (Eventually it was decided that we believed he wasn't; necromancers are forbidden in Avamar and so everyone would probably have been obliged to arrest/kill him should he have been one.) Out of character, we discovered that all the party's warriors (I think it was only two of us, actually) were female, and declared ourselves to be the Women's Lib Adventuring Party.
Eventually a ref showed up and signalled that we should be properly in character, at which point the Wood Elf (whose name I wish I could remember...) rounded us all up into a circle to introduce ourselves to each other, and 'number off' (everyone in the group is assigned numbers so that quick roll-calls can be taken without names needing to be remembered). There's some confusion caused due to people instantly forgetting their numbers; the Wood Elf identifies himself as a priest; Tessaret settles down to hear Kasruun moan about there not being any beer, and does the mother-hen 'you shouldn't be drinking before you go out fighting things' speech. Kasruun admits to everyone that his parents disapprove of him adventuring, and he had to pick the lock to get out of his room; also that the expensive cloth he's wearing is stolen, and that his father beats him when he catches him. The Wood Elf, with the general agreement of most, tell him to get out of there as soon as possible, and it's explained that adventurers get paid plenty and so he can set up house on his own with even just tonight's pay. Sometime during all this the militia show up, and when we've all finished being jumpy they give us our mission brief.
First Night Adventure: Mission Brief
The militia inform us that we're to sneak into Gil territory, meet up with a Pathfinder, and follow his instructions. They also give us some useful potions (invisibility, healing, something else I've forgotten), although Kasruun apparently already has a full compliment of potions. They instruct us to number off, which we already did, and the Wood Elf, who's beginning to turn into the party leader, insists that it should be a full party decision to use the potions. We're then escorted into the forest by one of the militia, and at the relevant place one Pathfinder, as promised, drops out of the trees, which makes everyone jump and draw weapons. He assumes we've already been fully briefed, but we inform him that he's meant to be briefing us, and so he tells us that our mission is to infiltrate a Gil encampment - he insists he has the means for us to pass as Gil, but won't tell us what they are yet, as he has to go and confirm our identity first - and gives us a rendezvous point, before disappearing back into the trees, warning of Gil patrols in the area.
First Night Adventure: Running Around In Chainmail
We started off along the road through the gate, the scouts running ahead to try and spot any Gil patrols. The Templar, also in chainmail, was clinking somewhat noisily; I made some noise when I moved wrong, but because of the velvet over the chainmail I was reasonably quiet when I paid attention to it or wasn't actually running. There was some disagreement about whether she should take it off or not; she started to, but someone (I think it was one of the two I've forgotten the identity of) told her not to, that she'd need the protection, so she didn't get to remove it. About this time, a ref caught up with us and informed us that actually we were going in completely the wrong direction (and in fact off the campsite), and pointed us the right way. We elected to stand around and wait for the scouts to come back, which took quite a while as they'd gone quite a way further than the rest of us, and then started along the road we were meant to be travelling.
About two meters down the road, a scout returned and informed us that there were Gil patrols around, so we retreated back to where we'd met the Pathfinder (our third time at the corner). Then we were beckoned by the scout and ran up the road. Then we were warned off by the other scout and ran back down the road. And up the road. And down the road. At this point we decided to try and get around a different way. We ran down the other road. We ran up the other road. We were informed by the ref that there was absolutely no way we were getting anywhere down that road. We went back to the corner (sixth time), at which point Tessaret asked the Wood Elf in a slightly more impatient tone than Michelle would have used if we were going to run up and down the same road *all* night. He just smiled and said "Probably," which rather took the wind out of Tessaret's sails, although she did glare at him for about five minutes while we waited for the scouts to return again. This time we actually made it all the way up the road at a crouching run, and then dropped to the ground on the road behind a thick-ish set of trees the other end.
We went through the middle of the tree-line rather than following the second stretch of road (and I almost lost my shield to a wire fence), dropping again when a patrol walked past. Running on, the scout ahead warned of something in the path, which turned out to be a tree branch. Duitifully, everyone stumbled on it and made lots of branch-cracking noises. Moving on towards the shelter of a building, there was a small step downwards where grass met concrete. Naturally, I missed my footing entirely and went down with a muffled exclamation which unfortunately began with the letter 'f'. Scrambling to my feet and getting behind the building, I reassured practically the entire party that I was fine, and only then was I informed that the first thing they'd been concerned with was that I'd made a noise. The other person in chainmail - the Templar - said that she'd fallen over too and it might have been her they'd heard. There was an open stretch of ground to get across before we got to the next patch of cover (clumps of brambles, with more open ground between, then a decent hedge at our rendezvous point), so the scouts took a while noting the patrols before they beckoned us across, and we found out later that apparently we still got seen about 2/3 of the way across, but they'd been so impressed that we'd got that far and were still being very stealthy that they let us go.
First Night Adventure: The Gil Encampment
Our friendly neighbourhood Pathfinder was waiting between a wooden cart and the helpful hedge, and he provided our 8-person party with six hoods, which would apparently disguise us as Gil troopers. Tessaret asked Kasruun what a Gil trooper ought to act like, and was told 'military'. Patrick, the Tuathan (in a kilt and blue-makeup 'woad'), and the scout we'd all accused of being a necromancer, volunteered to go without hoods, and we decided to take them into the camp as prisoners (defectors, actually, but nobody appeared to appreciate the difference) to provide a good excuse for going in. The Pathfinder gave us a watch-word that could be used to prove that we were Gil, but told us not to offer it unless we were actually asked for it. The Templar took on the role of commander of the 'patrol', and we marched straight into the camp.
We were called to halt and state our buisiness, which the Templar did, and our reason was accepted. We were instructed that we could make camp beside the main Gil encampment, and so we headed off around the side of a guarded building and started arguing loudly about collecting firewood. The 'prisoners' were released into the camp to scout, which turned out to be a somewhat bad move as the encamped Gil came to take them, but we insisted they'd been taken by someone else (Tessaret stayed out of the way and 'collected firewood', although originally she'd been arguing that someone (i.e. her) ought to stay and pretend to guard the prisoners, because she didn't want to go out amongst the Gil trying to remember information, not trusting her memory). There was a brief hunt for them, in which Patrick was found, and several people asked Tessaret who had taken the prisoners, but she stuck to her story of collecting firewood. Sent to guard Patrick, she found another prisoner unconscious in the cells, and tried to wake him up, but with no success. The wood elf came back at that point, however, and so she asked him (in a rather brusque and slightly impolite manner) to take a look over the unconscious guy.
People came and went, mostly party members; the unconscious guy was healed up and seemed to be on our side, so we gave him his weapon back and some of the other party members took him away. A while later, the commander of the camp came in, announcing his intention to 'question' the prisoner. Tessaret hung back, trying to think of a way to defend Patrick, but in the end she couldn't; she was tempted to start fighting, but instead just said 'sir' a lot and went outside with the others, rather dejectedly. After hanging around outside for a while trying to find out what had happened to the other prisoner, why nobody was upset that he'd gone, and if there was any way to save Patrick, she was sent on patrol along with Kasruun to find the other 'prisoner'. Kasruun and Tessaret discussed how things were going as they wandered around the perimeter of the encampment, and met a second patrol moving the other way at the top of the field.
Feeling sorry for the party member on patrol with an actual Gil trooper, Tessaret continued around the field with Kasruun until they were back where they started, at the cells. Seeing what appeared to be the dead body of the second scout (which bothered Tessaret a little, but she hadn't really known him) being carried into the cells, they waited a while outside the door; the words 'dissect' and 'won't resist once they're raised' came up in the conversation inside. The commander returned out and sent them the other way through the camp, where they met the patrol (all non-party Gil) who had found the scout and saw them being promoted, and were told to take some R&R. Tessaret hung around on the edge of the group of Gil troopers; she saw Kasruun going off somewhere and began to follow him, but it was dark and she lost sight of him, so she got scared and came back into the light. She wandered a little on her own, seeing which places were guarded, and when Kasruun returned she suggested that they get some of the ale that seemed to be around and ply the guard of the unexplained guarded building in the middle of the encampment with it.
They were just setting off to do so when an alert was called, and they rushed to the front of the camp in time to see a vicious looking creature in weird armour come out of the place they'd been planning to distract the guard of. Standing well back, this was interrupted by a man in a Gil tabard running into the camp and declaring that he must speak to the commander. Having been escorted to see him, both he and the commander came running out of the cells yelling about a full battle alert, and the man hustled the party 'Gil' away from the encampment (by 'choosing' them for a patrol) and revealed himself as the Pathfinder. Tessaret wanted to go back to rescue Patrick (and the scout, but mostly Patrick) but didn't say anything; someone else said it, but the Pathfinder told us that we weren't to do any such thing. As we were still pretending to be a Gil patrol, the journey back didn't need to be done stealthily; we were stopped once, but we were accepted as a patrol and allowed to continue. On the way back, the wood elf suggested that we give our people a scare by walking in with our hoods still up, so we marched towards our waystation like Gil until someone raised the alarm (yelling "Gil! The Gil are coming! Run for your lives!") and then dropped our hoods, which didn't prevent one of the defenders shooting the wood elf. This was probabaly poetic justice, but everyone decided to ignore it because a Gil trooper turning into a wood elf was easier to see than a wood elf having a hood up or down.
First Night Adventure: Tavern Time
On getting back to the tavern, Tessaret mostly wandered around looking shell-shocked. Kasruun got her sat down and brought her some water, managing at last to acquire some beer at last, as well as a bottle of something he referred to as his father's 'special', which Tessaret eventually accepted a cup of. (OOC, it was orange Sunny Delight.)
The scout that had apparently been dead was there, back in full black-velvet kit (when he was 'dead' it was seen he was wearing furs underneath it), and everyone was just slighlty suspicious he wasn't who he said he was; he didn't seem tremendously eager to talk, but when pressed he claimed to have escaped by using the invisibility potion after he was 'ressed', which Tessaret heard as 'raised'. The suspicious crowd was rather broken up by some militia bringing in Patrick, unconscious and missing ears and some fingers. The wood elf charged over and healed him enough that he could sit up and talk, and apart from the missing pieces he then seemed fully recovered, although Tessaret didn't dare go anywhere near him, because she still blamed herself for what had happened to him.
Eventually she sat down and talked with Kasruun again. Kasruun appeared to be taking quite a liking to her, informing her that she was beautiful and valourous, which made her just slightly edgy (and denying everything) but rather flattered; she was mostly preoccupied with feeling responsible for Patrick's state, and feeling like she hadn't really done anything useful because she couldn't remember anything, even though Kasruun tried to convince her that she'd done well in keeping up their cover. He also fed her nice hot sausage rolls, which was most kind of him, and both Tessaret and Michelle thoroughly appreciated them both for their food-ness and for their warmth. Tessaret (although mostly Michelle, really) kept complaining about the chainmail until Kasruun and another guy decided to help her remove it; cries of "Come look! We're stripping a girl in the middle of Tavern!" went up as they attempted to remove it without also removing most of my hair, an undertaking that required piling the latter in the Gil Disguise Hood before bending me right over to let the whole set of chainmail simply fall off over my head. Kasruun said "I bet you feel light as a feather now," and Tessaret nodded gratefully, although Michelle wasn't quite so sure because her shoulders still ached as much.
The militia that had recruited them came in and demanded a report; Tessaret was slightly worried that they'd call on everyone in turn for information, but to her relief the wood elf did most of the talking required, and she managed to get away with sitting there and not saying a word, which was good because she didn't think she could remember anything useful. She duitifully threw her hood on the pile with everyone else's after the authority of the hood-taker had been duely questioned (she wasn't the person we were meant to be giving the hoods back to, but she was his commander and nobody knew of his whereabouts). After the debriefing a ranger named Peter (who wasphamster) came over to talk to her, probably because she was still looking confused and somewhat miserable. He was also of the Pathfinders, and she hesitantly told him about the mission, and ended up almost crying because of what had happened to Patrick, while he tried to reassure her that she'd done the right thing. A lady who appeared to know the ranger had just sat down next to her and introduced herself when a ref called 'Time out!' and everyone dropped out of character.
Friday Night, post-Adventure
I proceeded to then introduce myself out of character (the lady was called Emily, I think), which was quite amusing. The ref told us all that it was 2am and we ought to get some sleep because we'd have to be up at 8:30am to get ready for the Saturday morning adventure, andphamster got out his watch because he couldn't believe it was 2am already. (I could believe it, although it didn't *really* feel that late.) We talked for a little while longer, but it wasn't yet three when we finally made it up the stairs and into bed. Both Dave-who-played-Kasruun and Dave-who-played-the-wood-elf were in my room, along with guy-who-played-a-black-dwarf (yes, I *am* useless with names, thank you), one couple, and I think there were one or two other guys but I can't say I'm entirely sure. I think both Dave-Kasruun and black-dwarf-guy snored, although I'm only absolutely sure about the latter. Technically, I can't identify a time when I fell asleep - I was just slightly achy from, like, *running around in chainmail*, and *falling over onto concrete and skinning my hand*, and so forth - but there certainly wasn't five hours worth of perception between when I went to bed and when I started looking for my watch at just past 7am (I have to wake up at 7am for school, and it take a *lot* of exhaustion to make me not wake up at 7am at least momentarily).
And now I really ought to get some sleep, so I'll have to try and write up the rest in the morning. Why do I always attempt to write these things up in such obsessive detail and then never get through it all?
Oh, in other news, I'm trying to use Phoenix (because Opera sent me a *really annoying flashing ad*, which I couldn't stand to browse under) but I can't get mouse gestures to work (I downloaded the extension, but I don't know how to find this mythical 'settings' panel for it, and hence how to make it start working). Any help would be appreciated.
Had a great time at the LARP weekend, and will now compound my injuries by typing ridiculous quantities of stuff with my busted hand. (In case anyone's worried, it's just bruised and skinned in places. Fell over onto concrete.)
On The Way
We had reasonable quantities of fun, in the sarcastic sense of the word, actually getting to the place. Most of the journey up was quite uneventful, but when we got to the hotel my parents were staying at (having decided that the whole thing was a wonderful excuse for a holiday in the Peak District) it smelt of boiled cabbage despite not having a restaurant, and the room next to theirs was being decorated, so their room smelt of paint. Undaunted by this (and by me teasing them about it mercilessly, as they'd been teasing me about staying at a scout camp and I was beginning to think I had the better deal in accomodation), they went off to find somewhere to eat that night and after they'd reassured the hotel staff that no, I was not staying, I had a nice shower (because I suspected that the advertised showers at the place may not be nice at all). Then I read for a bit and went to sleep, because my period had been inconsiderate enough to start the day before and hence I was shattered already and slightly ill.
We set off in plenty of time to find Marple train station, which was just as well, because despite asking directions and finding a station called Rose Hill numerous times, we only found Marple station by exhaustive trial and error of every street in Marple, which isn't a small town by any means. Thankfully
phamster's train was late, although not as late as we were. Then we had even more fun (sarcastic again) finding the actual campsite, which culminated in attempting to drive down a bridleway. Some rather ominous scraping and crunching noises later, not to mention some impressive wheel spin and rubber-burning, and we did manage to extract the car backwards from the downhill, rutted path, but only just. My mother was convinced we'd busted the car, and as phamster had been giving directions I teased him about busting our car all the way there (my father took over the routefinding and found the actual road route into the campsite).Arrival
We had a brief moment of panic when we arrived because
phamster had never been to this particular site before, but a quick phonecall sorted out where we were meant to be. Insisted on lugging all my own stuff around, was introduced to some people, was given The Condensed Guide To The Campsite by a guy called Paul (who has long hair), went and claimed a bed (bottom bunk, nearest the room door, nearest room to the stairs). The beds were orange (orange sheets and pillowcases, anyway) and actually rather nice, although I did replace the pillow with the one I'd brought from home. phamster handed me an introduction booklet which had all the classes and races in it and I had a look through.Swordplay lessons
Heading down to the kitchen, I was introduced to some more people who I swiftly forgot the names of, and started to discuss what character I wanted to play. They warned me against being a Wood Elf unless I wanted to be chased after by some of the men. On claiming I wanted to be a warrior, I was asked if I minded hitting people with things and probably being hit back; they threatened to go beat me up when I said I didn't mind at all, but instead I got an impromptu swordplay lesson. And my first lesson was conducted with *real metal swords* - I think they were slightly blunted, but still. They make very cool noises when you parry with them. Once I'd learnt something of how to handle one of them, we started on the pretend swords that were what we actually used to hit people with, which weren't heavy so I could manage to use them one-handed, which was a lot easier.
Instructions + The Armoury
We were just about finishing up the basic swordplay lesson when I got stolen by the main organiser person (Chris), who ran through most of the stuff I'd read in the intro booklet, and generally made sure I knew what was going on and who I could ask questions of. After informing the person in charge of health and safety (Ian) that I probably wasn't going to drop down dead but might have issues with breathing, and being told to come back if I did, some more people had arrived and so some more introductions were given (and more names promptly forgotten). I got sent over to the Armoury for some basic character kit, and ended up with an undershirt of a colour I'd call Peasant Brown-Grey, something that looked like half a dead bear, then chainmail on top of that (boo for chainmail, it's *heavy*) and a maroon velvety top over everything (because it was the only thing my size with long sleeves).
phamster had thankfully leant me a belt; belts are useful with chainmail because you can scoop half the mail up to rest on the belt, and so not kill your shoulders quite as much. Ran backwards and forwards finding people who needed to go to the Armoury, and got myself a sword and The Shield of Doom, which was probably over 3/4 of my height and certainly wide enough for me to hide behind completely, and almost certainly cheating. It was amusing, and actually less heavy than the smaller shields. First Night Adventure: Introductions
Soon enough there was a call for the people on the Friday Night adventure, which I was, so I went to get my stats sorted out. After being informed that I probably shouldn't play a wood elf (because joking aside, they're far too popular) or a cavewoman (because the costume was quite awful), I settled on just a plain human warrior to start off with, which the people doing the stats were most grateful for, as there was very little they needed to write down for her. Asked for a character name, I decided to stick to my original idea of Tessaret. The party consisted of a wood elf priest/healer type, two scouts (one half-elven), one Numenorian Templar, one Tuathen something-or-other, me, and two others whose identities I've already forgotten. I forgot the names of a few more people, although I do remember that I began to notice that there were Too Many Daves. Gem (who was playing the Numenorian) and I commiserated about wearing chainmail, then we all went to look at the map on the wall. I was informed that we were probably on New Avamar (or somewhere else which was meant to be where lots of elves were), and IC'ly about the big island in the middle of the map (which was the first time Dave-who-played-the-Wood-Elf explained the people there, but not the last - he did so about half a dozen times during the weekend). Kasruun asked the Wood Elf how he'd become an adventurer, which led to him being spectacularly emotive about the destruction of the Elven Islands.
The Dave that was playing Kasruun, the half-elven scout, decided to talk to Tessaret 'in the tavern'. Started to flesh out my character history; Tessaret is a farm-girl trying to escape from her parents' insistance that she should be married off, preferably to someone rich and significantly older than her. Kasruun 'gave' her some better equipment (which I never actually verified or did anything about; purportedly he gave her masterwork sword and shield, which he'd acquired during an incident when him and a party of others were mistaken for someone else's troops and given lots of great eq, including a magic sword for himself) and told other people off for not talking. There was some confusion about who was and was not in character (as there weren't any refs around yet) and there was some debate over whether the other scout, who was entirely covered in black velvet, was or was not a necromancer. (Eventually it was decided that we believed he wasn't; necromancers are forbidden in Avamar and so everyone would probably have been obliged to arrest/kill him should he have been one.) Out of character, we discovered that all the party's warriors (I think it was only two of us, actually) were female, and declared ourselves to be the Women's Lib Adventuring Party.
Eventually a ref showed up and signalled that we should be properly in character, at which point the Wood Elf (whose name I wish I could remember...) rounded us all up into a circle to introduce ourselves to each other, and 'number off' (everyone in the group is assigned numbers so that quick roll-calls can be taken without names needing to be remembered). There's some confusion caused due to people instantly forgetting their numbers; the Wood Elf identifies himself as a priest; Tessaret settles down to hear Kasruun moan about there not being any beer, and does the mother-hen 'you shouldn't be drinking before you go out fighting things' speech. Kasruun admits to everyone that his parents disapprove of him adventuring, and he had to pick the lock to get out of his room; also that the expensive cloth he's wearing is stolen, and that his father beats him when he catches him. The Wood Elf, with the general agreement of most, tell him to get out of there as soon as possible, and it's explained that adventurers get paid plenty and so he can set up house on his own with even just tonight's pay. Sometime during all this the militia show up, and when we've all finished being jumpy they give us our mission brief.
First Night Adventure: Mission Brief
The militia inform us that we're to sneak into Gil territory, meet up with a Pathfinder, and follow his instructions. They also give us some useful potions (invisibility, healing, something else I've forgotten), although Kasruun apparently already has a full compliment of potions. They instruct us to number off, which we already did, and the Wood Elf, who's beginning to turn into the party leader, insists that it should be a full party decision to use the potions. We're then escorted into the forest by one of the militia, and at the relevant place one Pathfinder, as promised, drops out of the trees, which makes everyone jump and draw weapons. He assumes we've already been fully briefed, but we inform him that he's meant to be briefing us, and so he tells us that our mission is to infiltrate a Gil encampment - he insists he has the means for us to pass as Gil, but won't tell us what they are yet, as he has to go and confirm our identity first - and gives us a rendezvous point, before disappearing back into the trees, warning of Gil patrols in the area.
First Night Adventure: Running Around In Chainmail
We started off along the road through the gate, the scouts running ahead to try and spot any Gil patrols. The Templar, also in chainmail, was clinking somewhat noisily; I made some noise when I moved wrong, but because of the velvet over the chainmail I was reasonably quiet when I paid attention to it or wasn't actually running. There was some disagreement about whether she should take it off or not; she started to, but someone (I think it was one of the two I've forgotten the identity of) told her not to, that she'd need the protection, so she didn't get to remove it. About this time, a ref caught up with us and informed us that actually we were going in completely the wrong direction (and in fact off the campsite), and pointed us the right way. We elected to stand around and wait for the scouts to come back, which took quite a while as they'd gone quite a way further than the rest of us, and then started along the road we were meant to be travelling.
About two meters down the road, a scout returned and informed us that there were Gil patrols around, so we retreated back to where we'd met the Pathfinder (our third time at the corner). Then we were beckoned by the scout and ran up the road. Then we were warned off by the other scout and ran back down the road. And up the road. And down the road. At this point we decided to try and get around a different way. We ran down the other road. We ran up the other road. We were informed by the ref that there was absolutely no way we were getting anywhere down that road. We went back to the corner (sixth time), at which point Tessaret asked the Wood Elf in a slightly more impatient tone than Michelle would have used if we were going to run up and down the same road *all* night. He just smiled and said "Probably," which rather took the wind out of Tessaret's sails, although she did glare at him for about five minutes while we waited for the scouts to return again. This time we actually made it all the way up the road at a crouching run, and then dropped to the ground on the road behind a thick-ish set of trees the other end.
We went through the middle of the tree-line rather than following the second stretch of road (and I almost lost my shield to a wire fence), dropping again when a patrol walked past. Running on, the scout ahead warned of something in the path, which turned out to be a tree branch. Duitifully, everyone stumbled on it and made lots of branch-cracking noises. Moving on towards the shelter of a building, there was a small step downwards where grass met concrete. Naturally, I missed my footing entirely and went down with a muffled exclamation which unfortunately began with the letter 'f'. Scrambling to my feet and getting behind the building, I reassured practically the entire party that I was fine, and only then was I informed that the first thing they'd been concerned with was that I'd made a noise. The other person in chainmail - the Templar - said that she'd fallen over too and it might have been her they'd heard. There was an open stretch of ground to get across before we got to the next patch of cover (clumps of brambles, with more open ground between, then a decent hedge at our rendezvous point), so the scouts took a while noting the patrols before they beckoned us across, and we found out later that apparently we still got seen about 2/3 of the way across, but they'd been so impressed that we'd got that far and were still being very stealthy that they let us go.
First Night Adventure: The Gil Encampment
Our friendly neighbourhood Pathfinder was waiting between a wooden cart and the helpful hedge, and he provided our 8-person party with six hoods, which would apparently disguise us as Gil troopers. Tessaret asked Kasruun what a Gil trooper ought to act like, and was told 'military'. Patrick, the Tuathan (in a kilt and blue-makeup 'woad'), and the scout we'd all accused of being a necromancer, volunteered to go without hoods, and we decided to take them into the camp as prisoners (defectors, actually, but nobody appeared to appreciate the difference) to provide a good excuse for going in. The Pathfinder gave us a watch-word that could be used to prove that we were Gil, but told us not to offer it unless we were actually asked for it. The Templar took on the role of commander of the 'patrol', and we marched straight into the camp.
We were called to halt and state our buisiness, which the Templar did, and our reason was accepted. We were instructed that we could make camp beside the main Gil encampment, and so we headed off around the side of a guarded building and started arguing loudly about collecting firewood. The 'prisoners' were released into the camp to scout, which turned out to be a somewhat bad move as the encamped Gil came to take them, but we insisted they'd been taken by someone else (Tessaret stayed out of the way and 'collected firewood', although originally she'd been arguing that someone (i.e. her) ought to stay and pretend to guard the prisoners, because she didn't want to go out amongst the Gil trying to remember information, not trusting her memory). There was a brief hunt for them, in which Patrick was found, and several people asked Tessaret who had taken the prisoners, but she stuck to her story of collecting firewood. Sent to guard Patrick, she found another prisoner unconscious in the cells, and tried to wake him up, but with no success. The wood elf came back at that point, however, and so she asked him (in a rather brusque and slightly impolite manner) to take a look over the unconscious guy.
People came and went, mostly party members; the unconscious guy was healed up and seemed to be on our side, so we gave him his weapon back and some of the other party members took him away. A while later, the commander of the camp came in, announcing his intention to 'question' the prisoner. Tessaret hung back, trying to think of a way to defend Patrick, but in the end she couldn't; she was tempted to start fighting, but instead just said 'sir' a lot and went outside with the others, rather dejectedly. After hanging around outside for a while trying to find out what had happened to the other prisoner, why nobody was upset that he'd gone, and if there was any way to save Patrick, she was sent on patrol along with Kasruun to find the other 'prisoner'. Kasruun and Tessaret discussed how things were going as they wandered around the perimeter of the encampment, and met a second patrol moving the other way at the top of the field.
Feeling sorry for the party member on patrol with an actual Gil trooper, Tessaret continued around the field with Kasruun until they were back where they started, at the cells. Seeing what appeared to be the dead body of the second scout (which bothered Tessaret a little, but she hadn't really known him) being carried into the cells, they waited a while outside the door; the words 'dissect' and 'won't resist once they're raised' came up in the conversation inside. The commander returned out and sent them the other way through the camp, where they met the patrol (all non-party Gil) who had found the scout and saw them being promoted, and were told to take some R&R. Tessaret hung around on the edge of the group of Gil troopers; she saw Kasruun going off somewhere and began to follow him, but it was dark and she lost sight of him, so she got scared and came back into the light. She wandered a little on her own, seeing which places were guarded, and when Kasruun returned she suggested that they get some of the ale that seemed to be around and ply the guard of the unexplained guarded building in the middle of the encampment with it.
They were just setting off to do so when an alert was called, and they rushed to the front of the camp in time to see a vicious looking creature in weird armour come out of the place they'd been planning to distract the guard of. Standing well back, this was interrupted by a man in a Gil tabard running into the camp and declaring that he must speak to the commander. Having been escorted to see him, both he and the commander came running out of the cells yelling about a full battle alert, and the man hustled the party 'Gil' away from the encampment (by 'choosing' them for a patrol) and revealed himself as the Pathfinder. Tessaret wanted to go back to rescue Patrick (and the scout, but mostly Patrick) but didn't say anything; someone else said it, but the Pathfinder told us that we weren't to do any such thing. As we were still pretending to be a Gil patrol, the journey back didn't need to be done stealthily; we were stopped once, but we were accepted as a patrol and allowed to continue. On the way back, the wood elf suggested that we give our people a scare by walking in with our hoods still up, so we marched towards our waystation like Gil until someone raised the alarm (yelling "Gil! The Gil are coming! Run for your lives!") and then dropped our hoods, which didn't prevent one of the defenders shooting the wood elf. This was probabaly poetic justice, but everyone decided to ignore it because a Gil trooper turning into a wood elf was easier to see than a wood elf having a hood up or down.
First Night Adventure: Tavern Time
On getting back to the tavern, Tessaret mostly wandered around looking shell-shocked. Kasruun got her sat down and brought her some water, managing at last to acquire some beer at last, as well as a bottle of something he referred to as his father's 'special', which Tessaret eventually accepted a cup of. (OOC, it was orange Sunny Delight.)
The scout that had apparently been dead was there, back in full black-velvet kit (when he was 'dead' it was seen he was wearing furs underneath it), and everyone was just slighlty suspicious he wasn't who he said he was; he didn't seem tremendously eager to talk, but when pressed he claimed to have escaped by using the invisibility potion after he was 'ressed', which Tessaret heard as 'raised'. The suspicious crowd was rather broken up by some militia bringing in Patrick, unconscious and missing ears and some fingers. The wood elf charged over and healed him enough that he could sit up and talk, and apart from the missing pieces he then seemed fully recovered, although Tessaret didn't dare go anywhere near him, because she still blamed herself for what had happened to him.
Eventually she sat down and talked with Kasruun again. Kasruun appeared to be taking quite a liking to her, informing her that she was beautiful and valourous, which made her just slightly edgy (and denying everything) but rather flattered; she was mostly preoccupied with feeling responsible for Patrick's state, and feeling like she hadn't really done anything useful because she couldn't remember anything, even though Kasruun tried to convince her that she'd done well in keeping up their cover. He also fed her nice hot sausage rolls, which was most kind of him, and both Tessaret and Michelle thoroughly appreciated them both for their food-ness and for their warmth. Tessaret (although mostly Michelle, really) kept complaining about the chainmail until Kasruun and another guy decided to help her remove it; cries of "Come look! We're stripping a girl in the middle of Tavern!" went up as they attempted to remove it without also removing most of my hair, an undertaking that required piling the latter in the Gil Disguise Hood before bending me right over to let the whole set of chainmail simply fall off over my head. Kasruun said "I bet you feel light as a feather now," and Tessaret nodded gratefully, although Michelle wasn't quite so sure because her shoulders still ached as much.
The militia that had recruited them came in and demanded a report; Tessaret was slightly worried that they'd call on everyone in turn for information, but to her relief the wood elf did most of the talking required, and she managed to get away with sitting there and not saying a word, which was good because she didn't think she could remember anything useful. She duitifully threw her hood on the pile with everyone else's after the authority of the hood-taker had been duely questioned (she wasn't the person we were meant to be giving the hoods back to, but she was his commander and nobody knew of his whereabouts). After the debriefing a ranger named Peter (who was
phamster) came over to talk to her, probably because she was still looking confused and somewhat miserable. He was also of the Pathfinders, and she hesitantly told him about the mission, and ended up almost crying because of what had happened to Patrick, while he tried to reassure her that she'd done the right thing. A lady who appeared to know the ranger had just sat down next to her and introduced herself when a ref called 'Time out!' and everyone dropped out of character.Friday Night, post-Adventure
I proceeded to then introduce myself out of character (the lady was called Emily, I think), which was quite amusing. The ref told us all that it was 2am and we ought to get some sleep because we'd have to be up at 8:30am to get ready for the Saturday morning adventure, and
phamster got out his watch because he couldn't believe it was 2am already. (I could believe it, although it didn't *really* feel that late.) We talked for a little while longer, but it wasn't yet three when we finally made it up the stairs and into bed. Both Dave-who-played-Kasruun and Dave-who-played-the-wood-elf were in my room, along with guy-who-played-a-black-dwarf (yes, I *am* useless with names, thank you), one couple, and I think there were one or two other guys but I can't say I'm entirely sure. I think both Dave-Kasruun and black-dwarf-guy snored, although I'm only absolutely sure about the latter. Technically, I can't identify a time when I fell asleep - I was just slightly achy from, like, *running around in chainmail*, and *falling over onto concrete and skinning my hand*, and so forth - but there certainly wasn't five hours worth of perception between when I went to bed and when I started looking for my watch at just past 7am (I have to wake up at 7am for school, and it take a *lot* of exhaustion to make me not wake up at 7am at least momentarily).And now I really ought to get some sleep, so I'll have to try and write up the rest in the morning. Why do I always attempt to write these things up in such obsessive detail and then never get through it all?
Oh, in other news, I'm trying to use Phoenix (because Opera sent me a *really annoying flashing ad*, which I couldn't stand to browse under) but I can't get mouse gestures to work (I downloaded the extension, but I don't know how to find this mythical 'settings' panel for it, and hence how to make it start working). Any help would be appreciated.
